August 2009 Archives

There are many on-line photographic projects out there but it's only once in a while you stumble upon a gem. Is there anyone among us who doesn't enjoy getting a surprise in the mail? Better still, what if you could receive an unexpected, sexy surprise in your email sometimes as often as twice a week, or as rarely as twice a year, depending on the whims of the sender? That's the promise of Nofound (secret), a mailing list that periodically sends its subscribers selected nude photos (of the artistic, rather than pornographic, type). Nofound(secret) is a private newsletter curated by Parisian Emeric Glayse about nude contemporary photography by email. Sign up at your non-work account and be sporadically but pleasantly surprised ;)

Also see Nofound, a non-profit curatorial blog project created by Emeric Glayse where contemporary photographers are invited to show fragments of their diaries.

In an interesting article published in the Guardian UK, Baroness Greenfield, a leading neuroscientist states:

Social network sites risk infantilising the mid-21st century mind, leaving it characterised by short attention spans, sensationalism, inability to empathise and a shaky sense of identity

Baroness Greenfield warns social networking sites are changing children's brains, resulting in selfish and attention deficient young people. The startling warning from Lady Greenfield, professor of synaptic pharmacology at LincolnCollege, Oxford, and director of the Royal Institution, has led members of the government to admit their work on internet regulation has not extended to broader issues, such as the psychological impact on children. Greenfield believes ministers have not yet looked at the broad cultural and psychological effect of on-screen friendships via Facebook, Bebo and Twitter.

"Photography is under attack. Across the country it that seems anyone with a camera is being targeted as a potential terrorist, whether amateur or professional, whether landscape, architectural or street photographer. Not only is it corrosive of press freedom but creation of the collective visual history of our country is extinguished by anti-terrorist legislation designed to protect the heritage it prevents us recording. This campaign is for everyone who values visual imagery, not just photographers. We must work together now to stop this before photography becomes a part of history rather than a way of recording it".To print and carry: STOP & SEARCH BUST CARD

Celebrated internationally for his unique style of exploratory and expressive life-based photography, Engström is an experienced giver of workshops, developing the teaching methods of his friend and mentor Anders Petersen, who was himself taught by the great Christer Strömholm. Aged 40, Engström has already created some of the most highly sought after photography books, particularly Trying to Dance, and this summer he consolidated his reputation by winning the Rencontres d'Arles 2009 Book Award with From Back Home, his collaborative project with Anders Petersen.

"Loneliness is a strange bird. If it is called upon... at first it comes like a quiet stranger and slowly befriends you. It then starts to seep into the skin... to live inside of you as sort of an ally... to strengthen you in your pain, as a place to escape, to go to it, to survive by it, to turn "inside"... to find shelter, to find refuge. It acts as a shield, erects for you a barrier... but then, it starts to take over... it fills you up, and emptiness sets in. What was once "you" is now something "else"... a chasm, a quiet chamber where numbness echoes and your mind screams out for someone to care. The one that you were going to be has quietly left you, the one that you were going to become has slowly gone away and instead, you are left in the shadows, a shell... a walking veneer. The emptiness that makes up the internal "you" soon finds your exterior. It comes from the hidden inside to the bare outside, the eye's give off the clues like a poker tell... the secret inside of you is able to be seen... your isolation and hardness tell your tale... and so your face becomes your betrayer. You now walk with your secret as a mask for all to see, covering up what once was you... and telling the world that you are no longer there or letting the world see that it is a partial you" (source: JH Engstrom "Shelter 1997")

We all know how technologies have changed the way we work today, but what exactly is photography evolving into? Is it a propagandist tool used beside words in the media? Or merely a form of digital illustration? What are the hidden agendas? Is our consciousness deceived by the imagery we see before us in our everyday lives? Have technologies opened a world up to non-professionals, that now threaten the industry with sub standard images and information, or does it simply make photography more democratic? Does technology allow things to be meddled with too easily, or has technology given us more tools to open our minds to an all new types of art and so therefore create new realities? Is copyright now completely undermined? Has playfulness with imagery enhanced or destroyed truths, beliefs and practices? Is seeing, still believing? Has photography lost its soul?

The latest cd release by Antony & the Johnsons has been dedicated to the legendary butoh dancer Kazuo Ohno. An extraordinary portrait of the artist, chosen by Antony Hegarty, features on the cover of The Crying Light.Kazuo Ohno was born in Hokkaido in 1906 & he danced until 2000.He was the founder of butoh, a Japanese dance form concerned with surreal metamorphoses (whom Hegarty refers to as "kind of like my art parent"). After his 90th birthday, Kazuo Ohno was still active as a butoh dancer. His last overseas performance was Requiem for the 20th Century which was held in New York in December 1999. But in the same year he had eye trouble & his physical strength gradually deteriorated. Yet Kazuo Ohno continued dancing as if he was nourished by his age. When he could not walk by himself, he danced with the support of others. When he could not stand even with support, he danced seated. When his legs didn't move as he wanted them to, he danced with his hands. When he lost himself, he crawled on his knees & audiences were moved by watching his back. The butoh dance tradition is continued by Kazuo Ohno's son Yoshito Ohno. Antony Hegarty is not only an accomplished singer/songwriter but also visual artist, & this maybe explains his beautiful & unconventional choices for the aesthetics of all of his releases. Peter Hujar's photograph Candy Darling on his death bed, 1974 was used for the cover of Antony & the Johnsons' second album, I Am a Bird Now (2005).

What do the colors mean?blue: for links (the A tag)red: for tables (TABLE, TR and TD tags)green: for the DIV tagviolet: for images (the IMG tag)yellow: for forms (FORM, INPUT, TEXTAREA, SELECT and OPTION tags)orange: for linebreaks and blockquotes (BR, P, and BLOCKQUOTE tags)black: the HTML tag, the root nodegray: all other tags

Photographs Do Not Bend focuses primarily on fine art photography and issues concerning contemporary photographic practice. By featuring the work of individual photographers, exhibitions, book reviews and exclusive interviews with artists, the weblog serves both as an archive of the author's personal interests as well as a platform for critical discourse.